A nonprofit strategic plan gives your organization a roadmap for success. By laying out your goals and the steps to achieve them, you’ll be in great shape to advance your mission. Explore the basics of nonprofit strategic planning so your organization can amp up its fundraising strategy, reenergize board members, or meet any other existing needs.
What is a Nonprofit Strategic Plan?
A nonprofit strategic plan is a bold plan of action that aligns a nonprofit’s goals with its values to provide a dynamic performance map for future endeavors. With this blueprint, your organization will be able to prioritize its most important projects, navigate through any challenges, and keep all of your staff members on the same page.
Ample planning can set your nonprofit up for success in the long-run, allowing you to more effectively meet your objectives and elevate your community impact.
According to Aly Sterling Philanthropy, nonprofit strategic planning can benefit your nonprofit and its team in a variety of ways:
Better time management. By clearly outlining the tasks that align with your priorities, you’ll spend more time on high-priority responsibilities and less time on extraneous projects that aren’t directly tied to your goals. As a result, each day’s work will be meaningful and impactful in pushing your organization’s mission forward.
Improved staff and board productivity. A nonprofit strategic plan clearly identifies each member’s responsibilities and projects so everyone has a comprehensive understanding of their roles. Plus, your entire team will know how their efforts contribute to your overarching goals, leading to greater motivation.
Better understanding of your guiding principles. Consider the values and goals that are important to your organization and outline them clearly in your nonprofit strategic plan. By refocusing your operations on these principles, your nonprofit’s team will rally together to work towards your vision for the future.
Ability to assess results. Goals give your nonprofit the opportunity to assess whether you’ve reached your objectives and how you can restructure your strategies to enhance your organization overall. In your nonprofit strategic plan, you’ll need to address how you’ll measure results so you can gather important insights and carry out your initiatives with new awareness and direction.
Building your nonprofit strategic plan isn’t a one-person job. Rather, you’ll want to collect a variety of perspectives and include your entire team in the process so everyone can work together towards mutual success. Let’s take a look at the specific steps towards developing an effective strategic plan.
Steps to Create a Nonprofit Strategic Plan
Creating your nonprofit strategic plan takes time, but will give new energy and life to your nonprofit’s staff and overall operations. Use this guide to develop a robust strategic plan that will take your nonprofit to new heights.
1. Assess
In the assess phase, you’ll reflect on what your organization is doing well and where there is room for improvement. For example, your nonprofit may have difficulty raising enough money to support its programs. The strategic area of focus that you’ll want to narrow in on is fundraising, and you might enhance your approach to fundraising by planning more engaging online campaigns.
This reflection process requires all hands on deck, so gather several different viewpoints from your nonprofit’s stakeholders. For example, you can survey your:
Volunteers and staff
Current and past board members
Current major donors
Beneficiaries
Remember, unfavorable opinions and critiques should be welcomed, as these will lead to unique ideas towards improvement. A nonprofit consultant can help collect unbiased views from each of your stakeholders so you can better understand different perspectives on your nonprofit’s operations and consolidate these into a plan of action.
2. Align
In the align phase, engage your leaders and members in a retreat to discuss their thoughts in an action-oriented forum. This phase helps you align your goals and values so you can prioritize the most important projects and tasks. By determining your high-priority action items, your team can effectively push your goals forward and waste less time on low-impact tasks.
Ensure that your priorities are relevant to your goals. For example, if marketing is an area of improvement for your nonprofit, you might want to prioritize optimizing your nonprofit’s website and social media presence. This ensures that your nonprofit is using its time and resources productively to reach its goals.
3. Act
The act phase is where your strategic plan becomes a fully formed roadmap for success. Following the SMART model (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely), you’ll need to develop high-level objectives that will allow you to complete your goals. For instance, if your nonprofit wants to enhance its approach to fundraising, you might create an objective to “increase the number of recurring gifts by 20%.”
To carry out your objectives, you’ll also need to outline initiatives. If you’re aiming to meet the objective for increasing recurring gifts, then sending targeted email appeals could be an important initiative. Creating a donor recognition wall could be another way to encourage donors to give again and again.
Create accountability by delegating responsibilities to different team members and laying out deadlines. This ensures that everyone understands their unique role in fulfilling your nonprofit’s strategic plan. Consider hosting weekly or monthly check-in’s so team members can discuss their progress and where they need additional support.
With a robust action plan, your nonprofit will be ready to approach its operations with new clarity and motivation. Work with a consultant to identify areas of improvement and create a tangible plan towards meeting your goals. Each year, take time to reflect on your nonprofit strategic plan and make adjustments as needed to enhance your approach.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Top 20+ Consulting Firms for Nonprofit Organizations – A nonprofit consulting firm can give your organization the support it needs to develop a strong nonprofit strategic plan. Explore this list of the leading firms and the services they can provide you.
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While it might feel easy to overlook marketing or to think that only for-profit organizations need to consider marketing strategies, you need to market your nonprofit successfully to both new and existing supporters in order to sustain a consistent donor base. To do so, your organization needs to have a cohesive brand that represents your mission well.
What is nonprofit branding?
Nonprofit branding includes all of the ways your organization communicates your mission and goals to the public. It’s a promise to donors, volunteers, and other types of supporters that you’ll work to further the cause they believe in. In other words, branding is a message to all your supporters that your nonprofit has a clear mission and will work toward that mission in all of your activities.
A cohesive brand ultimately instills trust in your audience, so it’s important to understand the essential elements of nonprofit branding. These essentials include:
Logo: Your nonprofit’s logo might include your name, or it could be a graphic or symbol that encapsulates your mission or represents your organization’s activities. Your logo is an essential element toward gaining brand recognition from supporters.
Color scheme: Color scheme is another element of brand recognition and should be incorporated across websites, marketing materials, donation forms, and fundraising appeals. Colors have symbolic meanings, and the colors you choose to represent your brand should reflect your mission. For example, many sustainability-focused nonprofits choose a green color scheme.
Typography: Like color scheme, typography should be consistent across all of your organization’s platforms. Different font types and styles reflect different tones. For example, a nonprofit that benefits children might have a more playful font (paired with bright colors and images), while a nonprofit that does legal work might choose a more professional, standard font.
Messaging: And, of course, the messaging that your nonprofit shares with your audience is a huge factor in how your nonprofit is perceived and understood. All of your communications should have a consistent tone, such as a sense of urgency for advocacy organizations or an air of excitement for an animal rescue.
Nonprofit branding best practices
Once you understand the essential elements of nonprofit branding, there are a few things to consider to ensure that your branding is consistent and benefits your nonprofit. In order to brand successfully:
Create a set of branding guidelines. These guidelines should include standards to follow, such as tone to use in communications or specific words and phrases that your nonprofit uses to describe itself. This will allow everyone across your team to understand what your brand is and how you want to present it to your audience.
Center your brand around your mission. Your mission should be at the center of everything your organization does, and that includes branding. Ensure that your brand reflects your mission accurately so that your supporters understand who you are and what you do.
Be consistent across all of your communications. Your website, emails, social media, physical flyers—every communication that your organization sends should have the same branding. With consistency, your brand recognition will grow, and your supporters will feel more connected to your organization.
Get inspired by other nonprofits with successful brands and websites. There are plenty of organizations out there with a variety of missions and purposes that maintain consistent brands. Check out some of your personal favorite nonprofits’ websites and communications to find ideas for your own brand.
For example, Best Buddies, a nonprofit that connects people with disabilities with people without disabilities, uses a playful logo, bright colors, and a bold font to portray their mission of friendship.
Note how their donation form pulls colors from the logo to maintain consistency across their website and communications.
Nonprofit branding agencies
Whether you’re new to nonprofit branding, looking to re-brand, or are just looking for some additional branding expertise, partnering with a nonprofit branding agency can make the process easier and ensure that you’re communicating your organization’s message in the best possible way.
Particularly if you are looking to work towards perfecting your nonprofit’s website, a branding agency or nonprofit design firm can be the perfect addition to your organization’s strategy, helping your organization to clearly communicate your mission within the digital space.
Branding is an essential aspect of a nonprofit’s ability to not only earn donations but also create a sense of unity and community for your supporters. Remember, your brand is a promise, so keep your promise to your supporters, always communicating your organization’s priorities and actions clearly.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Corporate philanthropy empowers charitable individuals to strengthen their impact on the causes they care about. Through corporate giving programs, businesses step up to the plate to provide nonprofits with the funding they need to thrive.
If engage with external partners at your nonprofit, you understand that corporate giving plays a major part in achieving your objectives. From your fundraising team to your volunteer team, it impacts every aspect of your operations.
If you’re not already leveraging these opportunities, you’re missing out on funding, volunteerism, marketing, and so much more. It’s never too late to start, though! We’ll take a look at the fundamentals of corporate philanthropy, starting with a basic definition.
What is Corporate Philanthropy?
Corporate philanthropy refers to the activities and investments that a company voluntarily offers to promote the welfare of society. Corporate giving often includes:
Financial donations and grants
Employee volunteerism
In-kind services and products
By giving to charities, a company communicates its commitment to supporting the community that makes it profitable. To fulfill their social responsibility to support worthwhile causes, companies usually go beyond donating by offering employee programs like matching gifts and volunteer grants.
When developing these corporate giving programs, they usually outline participation guidelines, ensuring that participants and benefiting organizations align with the company’s values and objectives.
How Corporate Philanthropy Helps Nonprofits and Businesses
Engaging in corporate philanthropy has become standard for today’s businesses. These programs are wildly popular, because they benefit everyone involved. Here’s how these programs impact participating nonprofits and companies:
Nonprofits can boost volunteers and donations. Corporate giving is also a fantastic marketing opportunity. When a nonprofit forms a partnership with a business, they can reel in new audiences with which they might not otherwise cross paths.
Companies can generate positive brand awareness by attaching their names to charitable causes. They can also create a positive work environment where employees feel like their values are supported. By creating a culture of charitable giving, companies can empower employees to enrich society, directly impacting workplace satisfaction. In fact, Crowd101’s corporate giving statistics page estimates that employees who participate tend to have 75% longer tenures with their companies.
There’s really no downside to corporate giving! When chatting with a company’s leadership about forming a partnership, your nonprofit’s team can mention these advantages, positioning it as a mutually-beneficial opportunity.
Types of Corporate Philanthropy
Corporate philanthropy takes several forms, and nonprofits need to be aware of these different types to fully leverage their potential. Let’s take a look at five ways companies can partake in corporate giving. Bear in mind that these aren’t the only types of corporate philanthropy — just the most popular ones.
1. Matching Gifts
Companies that offer matching donations will match their employees’ gifts to nonprofits. They usually offer these at a dollar-for-dollar rate, enabling employees to double their charitable contributions. However, some companies will offer them at higher rates, tripling and sometimes quadrupling the initial donation. Some companies will even match the money their employees raise through peer-to-peer fundraising!
Businesses usually set some ground rules for participating. Most often, guidelines include:
Nonprofit eligibility (e.g., no religious organizations)
Match ratio (e.g., .5:1, 1:1, 2:1)
Maximum and minimum donation amounts (e.g., gifts between $25-$1,000)
Request deadlines (e.g., within one year of the original donation)
There’s a lot to keep up with when funneling donors through the match process. That’s why most nonprofits enlist the help of a matching gift tool. This allows the donor to research their company’s corporate giving guidelines, determine their eligibility, and learn how to submit a request.
Plus, a tool with autosubmission functionality will remove a few steps from the process, enabling donors to submit their match requests immediately from the donation confirmation page.
2. Volunteerism
Volunteering brings out the best in people. Volunteers can interact directly with nonprofits’ beneficiaries and can put their skills to use to drive societal change. Corporate volunteerism encourages employees to spend their time with their favorite organizations. It can take a few different forms, such as:
Volunteer grants. With this type of corporate giving, companies promise to donate to the nonprofits where their employees regularly volunteer. Our volunteer grant guide explains that “some businesses pay per volunteer hour while others require employees to serve a minimum number of hours with an organization.” (Hint: board service usually counts toward volunteer hours!)
Team volunteer grants. As a way to encourage team building, companies offer team volunteer grants. These programs are almost identical to volunteer grants, but usually have a few more requirements, such as how many employees must volunteer together.
Volunteer time off (VTO). Some companies even offer paid time off for volunteering, allowing employees to take a few hours outside of the office to spend with a nonprofit and still get paid for the workday.
Volunteer-related corporate giving initiatives provide nonprofits with extra sets of hands, while employees exercise skills they can use both in and out of the workplace!
3. In-Kind Donations
In-kind gifts are contributions of goods or services, rather than financial donations. Occasionally, a company will offer in-kind donations as a way to support charity.
For instance, you might allocate $5,000 toward paying for graphic design services in your budget. A design firm may swoop in and donate free graphic design services to help your nonprofit out. This can free up some (or all) of that $5,000, so you can reallocate it toward other operational expenses.
In-kind donations can also take the form of tangible goods like prizes for charity auctions. Or, maybe companies will provide you with event space or catering. There are several ways a company can donate without writing a check!
Some companies even go as far as using a mission-driven business model in which they provide software and services exclusively to nonprofits. In this case, they may donate or offer their products or services at reduced rates.
4. Automatic Payroll Deductions
Automatic payroll deductions are one of the easiest corporate philanthropy initiatives. Employees can opt into their employers’ program and automatically send a portion of each paycheck to a specific nonprofit. The process is really similar to contributing to a retirement account.
Note that companies will usually limit the types of nonprofits that employees can send donations to through this program. Also, know that federal law requires charitable donations to come out of an individual’s post-tax earnings, so employees can deduct donations from their taxes each year.
Financial: A company might sponsor a specific event or program, providing funding to make it possible.
In-kind: This involves donating goods or services to the nonprofit, like we mentioned in the previous section.
Media: A company might pay for a nonprofit’s advertising costs, such as those for televised commercials, radio promotions, and printed ads.
A key aspect of these relationships is that the nonprofit must acknowledge that the business has supported their programs or events. That way, the company receives positive publicity in exchange for their contributions.
How to Promote Corporate Philanthropy
Promoting corporate philanthropy to businesses and their employees can help your nonprofit secure meaningful support. Follow these tips to encourage widespread corporate giving:
Build strong relationships with corporate partners. Reach out to businesses that align with your nonprofit’s mission and explain how starting a workplace giving program can be a mutually beneficial venture. For instance, you might say that their support will allow you to increase your programming by a certain percentage and, in turn, will help them achieve their corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals.
Provide a variety of giving options. Offer a range of giving options to accommodate diverse employee preferences. This may include traditional payroll deductions, one-time donations, employer matching programs, or opportunities for employees to volunteer their time and skills. Make it convenient for employees to participate and choose the giving method that suits them best.
Provide recognition. Recognize and celebrate corporate partners who participate in workplace giving programs to encourage their ongoing support. Acknowledge their contributions through newsletters, social media, and special events.
Be prepared to provide corporate partners with data and reports on the impact of their contributions. Demonstrating transparency and accountability in how you use their donations can strengthen the trust between your organizations.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Companies everywhere are becoming increasingly aware of their responsibility to give back to their communities. To fulfill this obligation and support charitable causes, they develop corporate giving initiatives like matching gift programs.
Donation matching has the power to multiply the contributions you’re already receiving from donors. And when your donors are properly educated about the opportunity, they’ll be much more inclined to give.
If this is your first time hearing about matching gifts, don’t worry! It’s never too late to start leveraging corporate social responsibility (CSR) in your fundraising efforts. So that you can pinpoint opportunities within your donor database, we’ll cover the basics in this quick guide to corporate matching gifts.
What Are Matching Gifts?
Matching gifts are a type of corporate giving in which companies financially match the donations their employees give to nonprofits. Companies create guidelines to define which types of employees are eligible, which nonprofits are eligible, and how much someone must donate to qualify. This ensures that the program generates value for the company and participating nonprofits.
Companies most often match donations at a 1:1 ratio, meaning that they will donate $1 for every $1 an employee donates. However, some businesses will match at a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio, meaning some employees can effectively quadruple their donations to charity.
Benefits of Corporate Matching Gifts
At its core, matching gifts provide free money to nonprofits. Dive a bit deeper, and you’ll see that the benefits go beyond this surface-level advantage though.
From the nonprofit perspective, matching gifts can increase donor engagement and retention. Donors will feel like their contributions are making more of a difference in your cause without having to reach back into their wallets. Double the Donation’s nonprofit fundraising statistics page also claims that 1 in 3 donors would give larger gifts if they knew their employer would match their gift.
A driving force for companies to create this type of program is that it can increase employee satisfaction. By supporting their donations, they’re showing employees that they care about their values outside of the workplace. And as we touched on earlier, giving to charity can also create positive brand recognition for companies. These benefits are great to communicate to company leadership if your nonprofit’s team ever encourages a local business to create a program.
Common Guidelines for Matching Gift Programs
When developing a matching gift program, corporations often lay out some basic participation guidelines. This makes it easier for them to match the donations that align with their organization’s values and priorities. Here are some of the most common rules corporations define:
Matching gift ratio. This is the rate at which a company will match donations. Like we mentioned, this is most often a dollar-for-dollar rate.
Minimum and maximum match amounts. This specifies the highest and lowest donations that a company will match. For example, a company might match gifts made between $25 and $1,000.
Submission deadlines. Different companies have different deadlines by which a donor must submit a matching gift request. Common deadlines include the end of the calendar year, a set number of months after the donation, and within 12 months of the donation.
Employee eligibility criteria. Some companies will outline which types of employees are eligible. This might include full-time employees, part-time employees, retirees, and even employees’ spouses.
Nonprofit eligibility criteria.Crowd101’s corporate matching gifts guide explains that most nonprofits and public educational institutions are eligible. However, companies often exclude religious organizations from participating in their programs.
When you outsource the work to a matching gift tool, you’ll simplify the research process. You can easily extract these guidelines for individual companies, making it easier to identify match-eligible donors in your CRM.
The Matching Gift Process
Luckily, the process required to receive a matching gift is pretty straightforward. When you start folding corporate giving into your priorities, make sure you train your fundraising team. That way, they can guide donors through the process if questions arise.
Here’s what will need to happen to secure a matching gift:
The donor submits a donation and researches their eligibility. When you use a corporate matching gift tool, you can redirect each donor to a page where they enter their employer’s name to locate their program’s guidelines. From here, they can determine whether their donation is eligible for matching.
The donor submits the required forms. Depending on whether their employer manages its program in-house or outsources it to a third-party vendor, they’ll either submit the request directly to their employer or fill out a form in an online corporate giving portal.
The company follows up and matches the donation. The employer reviews the forms and follows up with your nonprofit to confirm the initial donation was made. If everything’s in line, the company sends your nonprofit a check!
Simplify this process even further with a tool that offers matching gift auto-submission. Backed by a platform that offers this level of innovation, donors can request corporate matches directly from their donation confirmation page, cutting out a few steps in the process.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Whether you’re a seasoned nonprofit professional or a newcomer launching your first fundraiser, you have to think of creative strategies to encourage active participation in your fundraising campaigns. One popular method of keeping donors engaged is adding gamification elements to your fundraiser. After all, who doesn’t love a little friendly competition?
We’ll break down the basics of an essential and effective gamification tool: fundraising thermometers. Learn how you can incorporate them into your donor communication strategy to help you increase participation and raise more funds.
What is a fundraising thermometer?
A fundraising thermometer is a graphic that nonprofits create to visualize fundraising progress and motivate supporters to donate to a campaign. These simple, colorful thermometer graphics show a fundraising campaign’s goal and how close your nonprofit is to reaching it.
While some online fundraising platforms are equipped with virtual thermometers that update automatically based on your progress, you can also easily create one on your own using a template.
How to use a fundraising thermometer
Fundraising thermometers are popular tools for encouraging donor engagement because they’re so easy to make, update, and share. Follow these simple steps to create your own:
Set your fundraising goal. Your exact donation goal should appear at the top of the graphic to give supporters a clear indication of how many more donations you need. Be sure to set a realistic goal that inspires supporters to give more, rather than an overly-ambitious goal that may discourage them.
Design your thermometer thoughtfully. Make your design eye-catching and inviting, but keep it straightforward. Donors should be able to get a sense of your progress with one quick glance. Consider using our example fundraising thermometer template below to make your own.
Update and share it with supporters! If you don’t use an automated tool, ensure that you manually update your fundraising thermometer on a regular basis. Then, share major updates across communication channels to keep the momentum going.
You can use fundraising thermometers for both long term campaigns and one-time events. Use your thermometer to provide consistent progress updates for long term campaigns, or showcase a virtual thermometer with live updates at your event. Either way, spread excitement about your progress and celebrate milestones.
Fundraising thermometer best practices
The simplicity of fundraising thermometer graphics leaves plenty of room for creativity. As you experiment with design elements, however, follow these best practices to ensure you make the most of your thermometer’s potential:
Align your thermometer with your organization’s branding. Design your fundraising thermometer using the same colors, font, and logo that you use in other communications. When your thermometer matches your brand, you’ll be able to seamlessly incorporate it into your marketing materials.
Keep it simple. Stick to the essential elements: your end goal, current funds raised, and the visual progress bar.
Share your graphic across marketing channels. Post your fundraising thermometer on your social media accounts, include it in your newsletter, and send it directly to donors via email. The more eyes you get on your thermometer, the more supporters you can inspire to give!
Encourage social sharing when supporters donate. Let your donors showcase their support and widen your nonprofit’s reach by sharing the graphic on social media.
After you try out your first fundraising thermometer, gather feedback from supporters to gauge how effective it was. Then, use that information to tailor the design for your next fundraiser and create an even more engaging experience for donors.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Regardless of whether you’re actively tracking it, data is attached to every action your nonprofit takes. From serving your beneficiaries to communicating with donors, metrics indicate performance and help you make informed decisions about increasing your impact. Without a nonprofit data collection plan, you’re missing out on important information about your work.
As part of your plan, you need to know what data your nonprofit will collect and how you’ll use it to guide your strategies. Let’s cover the basics, so you can start tracking your organization’s performance.
What Is Nonprofit Data Collection?
Nonprofit data collection is the process of gathering data to use in decision-making and strategic planning. It involves pulling data from various sources, like donation forms, marketing platforms, and fundraising campaign management tools.
Tracking and managing various types of data allows nonprofits to quantify the impact of their work. Effective collection strategies allow these organizations to make educated decisions about improving their programs, strengthening their marketing, and amplifying their mission as a whole.
What Data Should Nonprofits Collect?
From fundraising and marketing to community outcomes, the metrics your nonprofit can monitor are endless. However, just because you can collect all this data doesn’t mean you should. Too many metrics will clutter your database, and you’ll have to muddle through the unnecessary data points to get to the ones that are actually helpful.
NPOInfo’s guide to nonprofit data collection breaks common metrics down into several different crucial categories. These categories will give you a solid foundation for shaping your nonprofit’s data collection process.
1. Constituent Information
Between donors, volunteers, and advocates, your nonprofit interacts with a lot of supporters. Supporter data lets you know exactly who these individuals are, so you can cater your outreach and work to appeal to them.
Start by collecting basic personal information like the following:
Name: This will allow you to address individuals by their preferred names and titles.
Age: Tracking this means you can send relevant appeals and gain insight into the best ways to contact your supporters. For example, younger audiences may respond better to social media or SMS outreach, while older audiences may engage more with direct mail solicitations.
Employment status and employer: Tap into corporate giving, such as volunteer grants or matching gifts, by understanding individuals’ employer information.
Contact details and preferences: Collect supporters’ email addresses, phone numbers, and postal addresses. Knowing their contact information and preferred methods of communication will allow you to keep in touch.
If any of this information is missing from your CRM, look into conducting a data append. Our data append guide explains that this process enables you to “pull data from external sources to correct incorrect data or supplement incomplete data.” Most often, data append service providers will append contact information, birthdays, and employment details.
2. Giving Data
From here, you can dig deeper into supporters’ giving tendencies, directly deepening your understanding of their motivations. You might track details like:
Type of supporter: Mark individuals as donors, volunteers, event attendees, advocates, and so on. That way, you can reach out with relevant opportunities.
Giving amount and frequency: Segment them even further by monitoring how frequently and how much they give, whether they donated, volunteered, or supported your work in some other way once or on a recurring basis.
Tracking these details will enable you to reach out with the right appeals at the right times, increasing the likelihood that someone will continue giving to your cause.
3. Campaign Data
You spend time planning and executing your campaigns. Don’t let that go to waste by overlooking your performance metrics. Campaigns provide a prime opportunity to collect data, such as:
Event attendance: Track how many people attend your events. Doing so will let you know which types of events appeal to the widest audiences possible.
Revenue: Monitor how much your campaigns raise and the sources of those contributions, whether they’re donations, matching gifts, or sponsorship money.
Campaign conversions: Track how many first-time donors, volunteers, newsletter subscribers, and so on that your campaign acquires.
Donor and volunteer retention rates: Retention rates indicate the success of your supporter engagement efforts. Measure donor and volunteer retention across your campaigns to determine what inspires people to stay involved.
Collecting data for your nonprofit’s campaigns will help you revise your approach and make the most of future campaigns. Start with these key performance indicators and build out your list from there.
4. Financial Data
Most nonprofits operate on limited budgets. That means every dollar matters. To maximize revenue and cover operating expenses, you’ll need to collect financial data such as:
Income: Track the revenue you receive through donations, membership fees, products, sponsorships, and so on. This will also allow you to project growth targets.
Expenses: Your nonprofit needs to spend the money it raises to pursue its mission. Track how much you spend on staff salaries, campaign costs, vendor charges, and any other day-to-day operating costs.
Cash-on-hand: This is the total amount of money that’s accessible at any given moment. Between bank accounts and additional assets, track your reserve funds to know how long your nonprofit can feasibly last without additional income.
Investments: If your nonprofit invests its funds, keep up with how much you’ve invested in different sources, and record investment income at the end of each month.
Tracking this data will allow you to monitor cash flow, remain financially stable, and plan future budgets.
5. Marketing Metrics
External communication is vital for acquiring new supporters and retaining existing ones. When sending solicitations and marketing your programs, make sure you have nonprofit data collection processes in place to pinpoint the most effective communication strategies.
Here are some of the most important marketing metrics your nonprofit should collect, broken down into different categories:
Email metrics: Email has the highest ROI of any marketing platform. To maximize its potential, Feathr’s nonprofit email marketing guide recommends using your email software to monitor your open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and unsubscribe rate.
Ad performance: If you invest in paid advertising like Microsoft Ads or Google Ads, use each platform’s ad interface to collect data like your click-through rate, conversions, bid spending, and impressions.
Website KPIs: Data can help your nonprofit indicate which content is the most popular, determine content strategies, and improve the user experience. Track metrics like your traffic sources, bounce rate, and click-through rates.
Social media amplification: From Instagram to TikTok, collect metrics such as likes, comments, impressions, and shares to determine which platforms and types of messages perform well.
In a data-driven world, nonprofit data collection is a must for any organization that wants to thrive. Chances are, your nonprofit already collects most of the data we mentioned above. Now, it’s a matter of what you do with your data that matters!
Once you determine what metrics you’ll track, strengthen your nonprofit data collection and management strategies by streamlining forms to capture these details and practicing data hygiene to keep everything in order.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Your nonprofit’s database is a gold mine of useful information. When you create rich constituent profiles, you get to know who your supporters are and can create more valuable experiences for them.
Data enrichment for nonprofits enhances the data collection process and makes the information you’ve gathered organically even more valuable. That way, you can connect with prospects on a deeper level and drive greater outcomes for your cause.
By filling in gaps within your CRM, you’ll be on your way to stronger supporter relationships in no time. In this quick guide, we’ll cover the essentials of nonprofit data enrichment, so you can get started at your organization!
What Is Data Enrichment for Nonprofits?
Nonprofit data enrichment is the process of combining first-party information from internal sources (such as donation forms) with disparate data from external, third-party sources. Also known as data enhancement or appending, data enrichment allows you to add supplemental information like contact details, demographics, and financial data to your CRM.
The goal of nonprofit data enrichment is to build rich supporter profiles by filling in missing information. That way, you can gain a holistic understanding of who your supporters are and how you can best connect with them.
Often, the term “data enrichment” is often confused with “data cleansing.” While related, these processes serve different purposes. While data enrichment involves building upon existing data, data cleansing removes inaccurate or outdated information.
Types of Nonprofit Data Enrichment
When practicing data enrichment, you’ll need to decide what information will be most valuable for cultivating deeper relationships. Some of the most helpful types of data you can pull for your supporters include:
Contact information. Stay in touch with your supporters by finding their email addresses, phone numbers, postal addresses, and any other details that are missing from your database.
Demographics. NPOInfo’s demographic appends guide explains that you can pull information like each supporter’s net worth, geographic location, age, gender, religion, ethnicity, and race. This allows you to eliminate generic outreach and instead send relevant appeals that align with their specific characteristics.
Employer details. Knowing where your supporters work allows you to find available corporate giving opportunities by appending employer data. If someone shares their company email address when filling out a form, you can use that information to find the guidelines for their employer’s program.
While you can pull other details, these are often the easiest, most valuable types of details nonprofits pull for their supporters.
Benefits of Nonprofit Data Enrichment
As a nonprofit marketer, you understand the power of organically-collected data. Nonprofit data enrichment can take the data you’ve already collected and make it even more valuable by filling in any missing pieces. Regularly doing so will empower you to:
Strengthen your outreach. The more you know about your supporters, the better you can advance your nonprofit’s marketing and send tailored appeals. In addition, you’ll be able to stay in contact with supporters with multiple contact options and personalize your communications by understanding their demographics and interests.
Cultivate stronger relationships. At its core, data enhancement empowers nonprofits to foster more meaningful relationships with supporters. You’ll understand what motivates them to support your cause, helping you to cater your programs and appeals to what matters most to them.
Save time and money. Gathering data organically through surveys and similar activities can take time. Data enrichment can provide that information almost instantly. Plus, you won’t waste time or resources by sending communications to invalid email addresses, phone numbers, or postal addresses.
What it all boils down to is that nonprofit data enrichment will provide your team with the resources it needs to understand supporters and drive its mission forward.
Quick Tips for Using Data Enrichment for Nonprofits
Data enrichment is not a one-and-done process. Constituent data is always changing, even if you’ve implemented careful data collection processes. You need a plan for consistently collecting and enriching your data. Otherwise, your nonprofit might miss out on offering valuable offers and experiences.
Here are some ways you can get started improving your nonprofit data enrichment processes:
Append the data that will be most beneficial. While it can be tempting to append as much data as possible, that can quickly add up and muddle your organization’s CRM with unnecessary details. Think about your marketing goals before investing in nonprofit data enrichment services. For example, if you work for an advocacy organization, details like age, location, and political affiliation will let you know if people are of voting age, in your target area, and open to your outreach.
Prioritize security. Your nonprofit should always prioritize privacy and compliance, especially when dealing with sensitive information. Throw third-party data into the mix, and privacy gets even more crucial. Make sure you entrust a nonprofit data enrichment provider that uses trustworthy data sources and practices proper data management protocol.
Create data hygiene guidelines. Before and after appending new data, your team should have nonprofit data hygiene procedures in place. Cleaning up your database beforehand will allow you to add supplemental data with more confidence that it’s accurate, whereas continuing to keep a clean database will make sure your newly-appended data doesn’t go to waste. For instance, you might create rules to standardize data entry and handle errors like duplicate or inaccurate entries.
Effective data enrichment for nonprofits is more than investing in new data. You’ll need a solid strategy for leveraging your data. Otherwise, your enhanced data might go to waste. These tips will give you a solid start!
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
With the rise of the digital age, people are consuming information faster than ever. In order to capture their attention before they click away or scroll to the next post, you need exciting graphics.
Graphic design is an essential part of marketing your nonprofit organization to the world. A powerful graphic allows you to deliver information to your audience in a way that’s visually appealing, informative, and impactful. As a result, you’ll be able to maximize your nonprofit’s reach and improve your brand visibility.
For some nonprofits, graphic design can feel daunting, especially if you don’t know where to start. If you’ve found yourself looking for inspiration, you’re in the right place. By examining compelling graphic design examples, you can see what’s possible for your own website, social media, and more!
In this article, we’ll show off 15 of the best examples of nonprofit graphic design by format, along with tips and tricks to creating your own. Specifically, we’ll go over:
By seeing how other nonprofits have successfully used graphic design, you’ll be in great shape to plan your own designs and excite your audience.
Ready to jump into the world of nonprofit graphic design? Let’s get started.
Graphic Design Basics: Building Your Brand
Your nonprofit organization might be serving the same need as another organization. So, how can you stand out from the crowd and maximize donations?
A great graphic design will help build your brand recognition. By using a consistent theme across designs (colors, illustrations, messaging, and more!), your supporters will be able to immediately recognize your nonprofit and better connect with its mission. Better yet, more people will become familiar with your organization and want to contribute.
There are many types of graphic design you can use to improve your nonprofit marketing strategy. Consider adding the following to your graphic design portfolio:
A Memorable Logo – Shape the public’s perception around your brand in a creative way. A good design incorporates your organization’s values and is easy to understand.
Engaging Website Design – Your design should engage visitors and make them want to stick around to learn more. Consider font, color scheme, and a layout that is accessible, modern, and unique to your organization.
Helpful Infographics – These tools bridge the gap between visuals and text in an exciting way. Infographics are especially useful for education or to highlight your organization’s impact.
Comprehensive Brochures – Digital and in-print brochures can help people learn about your organization and why they should become involved. Maximize engagement with clear formatting, helpful information, and graphics that evoke an emotional response.
Impactful Video Graphics – Videos are a powerful form of story-telling that resonates with audiences. Use features like animated text and moving graphics to showcase your organization’s mission and impact on the community.
As you look through examples in this article, consider which graphic design types would be most beneficial and relevant to your nonprofit. Remember to keep in mind your audience. Your graphic design should be inspiring and impactful for the group you’re targeting.
Nonprofit Logo Examples: Designing a Logo that Pops
1. Humane Society of the United States
Why We Love This Logo
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is an animal welfare organization that has three focus areas: end the cruelest practices toward all animals, care for animals in crisis, and build a stronger animal protection movement.
Their mission to support animals in the U.S. is clear in the design. The logo features an illustration of America made from a variety of animals, ranging from pets like dogs and cats to wild animals like whales. The image is engaging to look at and immediately lets the viewer know that this logo belongs to an animal-centered group in the U.S., even if they aren’t familiar with the HSUS.
The color blue is another key feature that makes this logo great. Blue conveys positive qualities like trustworthiness, reliability, and professionalism to viewers. Blue is also in the American flag, so this color helps emphasize the organization’s mission to serve all of the U.S.
Top 3 Lessons From This Logo
Tap into your creativity! If your logo is boring, it won’t appeal to your audience.
Make your logo relevant to your organization’s mission. This will help strengthen relationships with supporters and attract new ones.
Select a color scheme that represents your values. Different colors make people feel different emotions, so consider your audience and how you want your logo to resonate with them.
2. Feeding America
Why We Love This Logo
Feeding America is a charitable organization that seeks to provide equitable access to nutritious food across the United States.
The words are stacked on top of each other so each letter is perfectly in line, creating a simple yet effective design. Feeding America’s mission is well-reflected in the letter “I’s” which align to create an ear of wheat. The wheat illustration adds character to the logo without making the words difficult to read or distracting the viewer.
This logo also uses color to its advantage. Feeding America’s color palette strategically ties back into their mission to tackle hunger. The orange and green colors feel earthy and can easily be linked to food production.
Typeface is another feature that plays an important role in this logo’s success. Feeding America’s logo was created with the font Gotham Bold, which is a sans-serif typeface. Sans-serif feels modern, clean, and friendly, making it a great choice for Feeding America’s branding.
Top 3 Lessons From This Logo
Integrate designs into your logo naturally.
Be simple and intentional with your color scheme. If you’re using more than one color, make sure the colors complement each other. We recommend using 2 to 3 colors maximum to create a minimal look.
Rethink Mental Illness aims to improve the quality of life for people with mental illness. This U.K. based organization offers support groups, mental health training, and more to improve mental healthcare.
For their 50th anniversary, Rethink Mental Illness created this special anniversary logo to commemorate their longevity. Developing an anniversary logo is a great way to demonstrate your organization’s longstanding commitment to serving its mission while adding authority to its brand. People want to feel confident that their donation is being put to good use, so highlighting your organization’s achievements can help attract more support.
Rethink Mental Illness seamlessly wraps the number 50 around its traditional logo, creating a feeling of unity. The number is large, clear, and immediately lets viewers know that this organization is celebrating a historic milestone.
Top 3 Lessons From This Logo
When creating an anniversary logo, stay true to your original branding. Use colors and fonts that your audience is already familiar with so they can easily recognize your updated logo.
The numbers should be as prominent as possible. We recommend making it the biggest element in your design so it’s clear that your organization is celebrating this achievement.
Make the numbers pop with a simple yet engaging design that ties everything together.
Nonprofit eCard Design Examples
Charity eCards are a fantastic way to bolster your nonprofit’s brand identity, raise money, spread cause awareness, and foster deeper relationships with stakeholders. Let’s take a look at some of our favorite examples of nonprofits putting this type of nonprofit graphic design to use.
1. Peace Winds America
Why We Love These eCard Designs
Peace Winds is an international NGO that responds to natural disasters and man-made crises throughout the world. As part of their initiative to raise awareness of refugees’ situations, they launch a joint Father’s Day and World Refugee Day campaign.
“For World Refugee Day, Peace Winds offered a visually-captivating eCard branded with original graphics, the organization’s logo, and its official colors. To top it all off, the typography emphasizes the purpose of the eCard and the organization behind the hard work. In exchange for a donation, supporters could send an eCard to honor refugees and raise awareness of their plight around the world.”
If you’re wanting to spread cause awareness, eCards like these are a great way to do so — especially if there’s a special cause awareness day, week, or month associated with your mission. Model your nonprofit graphic designs after these, and you’re sure to wind up with powerful greeting cards that supporters will love.
Top 3 Lessons From This eCard Campaign
Connect your eCards to other important occasions like major holidays to make them relatable.
Infuse your mission into your eCards by aligning the images and messages with your nonprofit, so supporters can spread cause awareness each time they send one.
Include your logo in the corner of each eCard to make it clear that it was designed by your nonprofit.
2. Youth For Understanding
Why We Love These eCard Designs
Online cards are such a fantastic way to recognize donors, volunteers, and anyone else who makes your mission possible. Youth For Understanding (YFU) launched a thank-you eCard campaign as part of their initiative to reignite program participants’ relationships with former mentors, staff members, host families, and anyone else who made their experience memorable.
We love these designs because they incorporate the nonprofit’s colors and logo while also promoting a positive message. The organization offered an array of greeting card options, including everything from generic thank-you designs to more specific ones. Program participants could pick their favorites and send a customized, heartfelt message alongside them.
Top 3 Lessons From This eCard Campaign
Get creative with the eCard designs you offer. A collection of different choices will give supporters multiple options from which to choose.
Allow users to customize the messages that are sent with each eCard. This can make each eCard more heartfelt and meaningful.
Enable different sending options, so users can send their favorite designs via email, social media, text, or some other method.
3. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
Why We Love These eCard Designs
Looking to spread the word about your mission and celebrate the holidays? Follow Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s lead by designing holiday eCards.
For this campaign, they designed a huge collection of Valentine’s Day eCards that featured different animals, aligning with their mission to save wildlife and educate the public about preserving their habitats.
Users could then select their favorites to send to loved ones to celebrate the special day and encourage them to visit the zoo. Smart nonprofit marketing tactics like these can take your outreach to the next level.
Top 3 Lessons From This eCard Campaign
While Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium offered these eCards for free, your supporters might be willing to pay for fun designs! Consider selling eCards to your supporters, and they’ll be more than happy to, knowing the funds will go to a good cause.
Offer plenty of designs, so your supporters can pick their favorites to celebrate special occasions. You’re not just limited to Valentine’s Day either. Create holiday eCards for every special day throughout the year, from Mother’s Day to Christmas.
Not every card you design has to be all about your mission. Instead, you can make the main purpose of your cards be spreading joy and then include elements of your brand (in this case, animals that the zoo protects).
Nonprofit Website Design Examples: Highlighting Your Mission
1. The End Fund
Why We Love This Website Design
The End Fund is a charitable organization that seeks to end the most common neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). This group is the only one of its kind with its critical mission to provide NTD treatments to over 1.7 billion people.
This focus on improving the lives of people affected by NTDs is evident throughout their web design. On the homepage, The End Fund breaks down their organization’s purpose with educational and engaging sections. Each section flows smoothly into the next and utilizes the same color scheme of red, blue, and black with a consistent font.
For example, “The Problem” section uses illustrations and bold lettering to highlight the number of people suffering from parasitic and bacterial infectious diseases. This design makes the statistics digestible for a wide audience. It also helps to illuminate the magnitude of the problem so people feel more passionate about The End Fund’s cause.
Another great feature of this homepage is the interactive map that identifies where The End Fund operates and its impact when you hover over the red countries. This visualization grabs the viewers’ attention and makes navigating The End Fund’s website a positive experience.
Top 3 Lessons From This Website
Maintain consistent branding across your website. Use the same color palette, font, and tone of voice throughout to build brand recognition and avoid distracting users.
Make your website well-formatted with clearly labeled headings and tabs.
Break down complex information into easy to understand graphics. Instead of writing long paragraphs about your organization’s impact, display it in a map or infographic.
2. MAHUBE-OTWA Community Action Partnership, Inc.
Why We Love This Website Design
MAHUBE-OTWA tackles poverty by empowering children, adults, and seniors to be self-sufficient.
Its homepage features a slideshow of engaging images that change every few seconds. These pictures include prominent captions that explain MAHUBE-OTWA’s services as well as an easy-to-click “Learn More” button that takes visitors to a more detailed page. This makes navigating the website and finding information a breeze.
Another great feature on this website is the interactive calendar located under the Events tab, which is displayed prominently on the homepage. This calendar makes it simple for site visitors to learn about in-person or virtual events so they can get more involved. The calendar also fits well with the rest of the website because of its purple and white color scheme.
Top 3 Lessons From This Website
Feature one or several images on your homepage. This lets visitors visualize your organization’s services and can help create an emotional response that connects people with your mision.
Include buttons with embedded links so visitors can easily navigate to another page on your website to learn more information.
Create an interactive calendar that makes learning about upcoming events easy. This can be coupled with text message or email reminders so your supporters can stay in-the-know.
3. Live Out Loud
Why We Love This Website Design
Live Out Loud is a charitable organization that seeks to uplift LGBTQ+ youth through offering resources, role models, and opportunities.
The branding across the website is consistent with the butterfly logo, which is featured prominently on the homepage. Here, visitors can see a slideshow of different teens in front of the butterfly logo as if these wings are their own. This ties back into Live Out Loud’s Mission to help kids become leaders in their communities.
With a straightforward menu bar at the top of every page, users can easily find the information they’re looking for. Live Out Loud simplifies and brings attention to the online donation process through a prominent “Donate” button highlighted in blue in all caps.
Once visitors click on the “Donate” button, a form is automatically generated with very few prompts, making donating simple and convenient. This helps donors feel more compelled to give again.
Top 3 Lessons From This Website
Incorporate your logo into your page in a fun and unique way! This helps maintain your brand and boosts excitement over your content.
Include a clearly labeled “Donate” button on the menu bar that grabs visitors’ attention. Try using all caps or a different font color to set it apart.
Embed an online donation form into your website with only a few prompts. This saves donors’ time and makes the donation process simple to complete.
The American Heart Association (AHA) seeks to promote cardiovascular health and prevent heart disease and stroke. One key way they achieve their mission is through providing public health education.
This focus on health education is evident in AHA’s infographic design. It features the clear title “How to Be More Active” in all caps at the top, which grabs the audience’s attention and defines what the infographic is about.
The layout, split between “Move More” and “Tips for Success,” is easy to understand and follow. AHA makes great use of illustrations to emphasize points and makes reading this graphic fun. The images, like the target by the “Set Goals” heading or the children playing, are relevant and help the infographic feel more approachable.
Top 3 Lessons From This Infographic
Place your title clearly at the top and choose a short, catchy phrase that encompasses the entire infographic.
Choose a layout that makes sense for the purpose of the infographic and is easy to follow. Your readers will be more likely to stick around and learn from the information!
Get creative and incorporate graphics that will excite your audience and make them want to read the corresponding information.
2. World Wildlife Fund
Why We Love This Infographic
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is a conservation organization that seeks to protect the environment and the people and animals that inhabit it.
This infographic explores the important role sea turtles play in the Mesoamerican Reef. While this could be a difficult topic to explain, WWF’s infographic makes complex information digestible through short information bullets, sections covering different subheadings, and an engaging life-cycle diagram.
The life-cycle diagram features fascinating graphics of sea turtles and brief descriptions accompanying them. Clear arrows make it easy for the reader to follow the material.
The color scheme – made up primarily of blue, orange, and pink – helps the information pop. Blue, which is the predominant color, relates closely to the ocean and adds to the visual appeal.
Top 3 Lessons From This Infographic
Break down complex information using diagrams or brief bullet points. This helps your infographic appeal to a wide audience.
If you’re using a diagram, make sure it’s easy to follow. Use clear symbols that your reader will understand, like arrows.
Incorporate colors that complement each other well and, if possible, relate to the topic of the infographic. This will help your reader connect with the information.
3. Amnesty International
Why We Love This Infographic
Amnesty International seeks to promote universal human rights and challenge injustices around the world.
This organization strategically makes their infographic more captivating through a graphic of a pregnant woman, which is relevant to its subject. Inside of the woman, statistics are listed out in large, white text, which helps it stand out from the green color. The body font is simple and easy to read, inviting the audience to read the text associated with the numbers.
Amnesty International has clear branding at the bottom of the infographic. This helps to build brand visibility and let viewers know more about the organization so they can get involved.
Top 3 Lessons From This Infographic
Make important statistics stand out by varying the text color and size. This will help bring your audience’s attention to the highlights of your infographic.
Choose a body font that complements your title and header fonts and has a minimal feel. Your reader will feel more inclined to read over everything as long as it doesn’t feel too overwhelming.
Include your organization’s name to increase brand awareness and, if space permitting, add the logo, purpose statement, and link to your website/social media handles.
Nonprofit Brochure Examples: Telling Your Organization’s Story
1. Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders is a humanitarian organization that provides medical care for people in conflict.
This digital brochure – 7 pages in length – gives a comprehensive overview of the organization including how they carry out their mission and use donor funds. On the front page, viewers can clearly see the organization’s name printed in the center and at the bottom as part of their logo.
The first page also includes a large, clear image of the organization at work, showing a child receiving medical treatment from a volunteer. This image highlights the impact of Doctors Without Borders and creates an emotional response.
The branding is consistent throughout the brochure, which uses the red, black, and white color scheme and the same header and body font. This strategy boosts brand recognition and maintains readers’ attention.
Another great feature of this brochure is the strong call to action at the end. Doctors Without Borders encourages readers to “be part of a global movement” and offers multiple ways (with links!) that they can get involved.
Top 3 Lessons From This Brochure
Use images to drive emotional impact! Include a powerful image on the front page that will make someone want to open up your brochure and read its contents.
Maintain consistent branding throughout the brochure. Your font, color scheme, and tone of voice should align with your other communication channels and advertising materials.
At the end of your brochure, include a call to action and let your supporters know what steps they can take next to get involved.
2. Atlanta Humane Society
The Atlanta Humane Society (AHS) is a charitable organization that provides shelter and veterinary care for homeless animals.
Their digital brochure can be flipped through like a book, enhancing the reading experience and inviting readers to engage with the material. AHS has a section dedicated to explaining the organization’s animal-driven mission and its impact in the Atlanta community. This helps supporters feel confident that they are giving back to a worthy cause. Plus, it can help boost local support because of the organization’s proud ties to Georgia’s capital city.
Another highlight is the use of graphics to represent how AHS has used donations to power change. The pie charts illuminate how AHS shifted from focusing primarily on shelter services to community outreach with COVID-19. These visualizations (and fun illustrations of pets!) help readers better connect with the material.
Top 3 Lessons From This Brochure
Let your reader know all about your organization! Within the first few pages of your brochure, there should be an about section that dives deep into your mission.
Appeal to your audience! If you’re a smaller nonprofit organization, you’ll want to draw supporters from your area. A great way to do this is by showing your pride for the city or region.
Include charts or graphs so your statistics resonate with readers. Include a clear key that explains the color scheme.
3. Boys and Girls Club of York County
The Boys and Girls Club of York County focuses their mission on empowering children to realize their full potential. This is done through a variety of programs for children, including summer camp.
This brochure works well for in-print distribution because of its tri-fold layout. Rather than focusing on the organization as a whole, this example targets the summer camp experience to get more children to enroll (and spread their mission far and wide to increase donations)! This allows the organization to provide more focused details such as the summer locations and fees.
The front panel establishes a clear purpose so people know that this brochure is all about summer camp. Colorful photos of kids having fun appeals to parents and will increase the chances of families reading through the brochure to learn more.
Another great quality is the clear headers, distinguished by bold font and colors, to bring the reader’s attention to the different sections. Even though the brochure has three different panels, there is a consistent style with the blue and green background colors and white text boxes.
Top 3 Lessons From This Brochure
In-print brochures are a great way to expand your outreach to people that may not be familiar with your organization. Choose a simple layout, like the tri-fold design, so your brochure feels more inviting to read.
You can use brochures to focus on specific programs or events. Dive deeper into the details, but include a small section that explains your organization’s mission.
Grab your reader’s attention! Your in-print brochure should stand out even when it’s placed with 10 other brochures. Opt for bold colors and exciting graphics on the front panel to intrigue people to flip through!
Nonprofit Video Examples: Expanding Your Reach
1. Smile Train
Why We Love This Video
Smile Train is a charitable organization that treats children with cleft lips and palates.
This organization has designed their video to be both informative and emotional. The video begins with a lighthearted animated scene of a child throwing food around and giggling. This is coupled with an important statistic about how children eat several meals a day. However, the next part of the video tugs at the viewers’ heartstrings by explaining that this is a struggle for children with clefts.
This video evokes an emotional response in the viewer and makes the audience feel more connected to their cause. Its simplicity draws attention to the problem Smile Train is trying to solve and why it’s an important issue to address.
The video is only 17 seconds long, but it gets to the point quickly and effectively. Viewers immediately know why Smile Train exists and their interest is piqued to learn more.
Top 3 Lessons From This Video
Make your graphics interesting and relevant to your organization’s mission. Animation, for example, can be a great tool for organizations serving children.
Statistics can be powerful in highlighting an issue, but don’t go overboard with it. Just one statistic can help shed light on your organization’s mission without overwhelming your audience.
You don’t have to produce a lengthy video to make an impact on your viewers! A video that’s short and simple keeps the audience’s attention and is a great way to introduce people to your organization.
2. American Cancer Society
Why We Love This Video
The American Cancer Society (ACS) seeks to end cancer through groundbreaking research, public education, and policy changes.
This video shows real people affected by cancer and how ACS positively impacted their lives. Ranging from children to adults, the people in this video demonstrate the scope of this problem and how it can impact anyone at any time. Their stories are raw and vulnerable, with one woman even saying that she has a high chance of getting cancer again in the near future.
Between clips of survivors, the video includes slides with short phrases to drive important points home, like “You can make a difference,” and “We need your help” in all caps.
Along with cancer survivors, the Chief Medical Officer of the ACS is featured in the video. The video ends with his powerful appeal to the audience for donations to save lives like the people shown in the video.
Top 3 Lessons From This Video
Featuring people and stories of impact can help build connection to your mission. People want to feel confident that their donation is going towards a good cause, so this lets your audience know how their money is making a difference.
Add text to your video to emphasize important points, but keep it short and sweet! You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too much text. Stick to visuals as much as possible.
Have a strong call to action in your video. Ask supporters to visit your website to learn more or donate.
3. Education and Employers
Why We Love This Video
Education and Employers aims to inspire students by connecting them with volunteers working in a variety of different professions.
This video follows a real-life case study of students to track gender stereotypes in the workforce – but there’s a twist! Three women ask the students to draw a surgeon, fighter pilot, and a firefighter, and the video follows the children’s drawing process. The majority of the children opt to draw a man for each of the professions, and are surprised when the women reveal that they work in these professions.
The twist in the video is a surprise to both the children and the audience. Education and Employers accurately captures the problem of gender stereotypes in this video and why there is a need to help children, especially young girls, realize their potential.
This video also interlays statistics about gender stereotypes and other key points with the clips of the classroom experiment. Black text on the white screen, as well as the letters formatted in all caps, grabs viewers’ attention. The typeface is easy to read and minimal, which increases the chances of the audience reading and internalizing the message.
Top 3 Lessons From This Video
Share your mission in action! Showing the audience a real-life situation of your organization’s impact and the issue it’s trying to solve can help increase your number of supporters.
Incorporating shock value can capture people’s attention and boost interest in your cause.
If you’re including text, make sure to use an easy-to-read font. Make your text stand out by using bold print, all caps, or a color that pops.
Wrapping Up
Now that you’ve seen the best nonprofit graphic designs, you can dive into bringing your own logos, websites, infographics, brochures, and videos to life!
Including some (or all) of these graphic design types will help get the word out about your awesome nonprofit (meaning more supporters and more donations)! Consider which types of graphic design would be most effective to bring attention to your mission and programs.
And remember, you can always keep learning! Continue to gather inspiration from nonprofits doing great things with graphic design. Check out their social media and websites so you can create the most engaging designs possible!
Interested to learn more about nonprofit graphic design? Explore these additional resources:
The Meaning of Color in Logo Design Your brand’s color scheme directly affects the way audiences will perceive your organization. Learn all about the emotional effects of different colors and how to decide which one is best for your nonprofit!
Starting a private foundation provides a lasting opportunity for philanthropists to donate consistently to a nonprofit and make an impact on causes they’re passionate about. If you’re considering starting a foundation or want to learn more about them, we’ll cover the basics and discuss all the important elements you’ll need to consider before diving into the process.
What is a foundation?
Instead of collecting donations from individual donors to launch their own programs and initiatives, private foundations act as the donors by giving grants to other nonprofit organizations to fund their operations. They can also provide scholarships to individuals in certain circumstances.
Foundations are private 501(c)(3) organizations, meaning they operate independently from the government but still retain a nonprofit tax-exempt status. To qualify as a private foundation, organizations must have a defined purpose, such as:
Charitable
Educational
Scientific
Religious
Literary
Foundations are often started by a family or small group of people with a shared charitable interest, but they can also be started by a corporation. For example, Google provides grants for nonprofits for free advertising space to help them get their message out to wider audiences.
How do you decide to start a foundation?
Before making the decision to start your own foundation, do extensive research on the process and legal requirements. Evaluate both the benefits and costs of starting a foundation, and take stock of your existing resources. Consider the following information while deciding if you should start a foundation:
What are the benefits of starting a private foundation?
Individuals and companies start foundations for a variety of reasons, but all foundations offer the unique ability to:
Create a significant and long-lasting personal impact on the causes you care about.
Honor an individual or your family by creating a legacy foundation in their name.
Maintain legal control over your operations.
Access tax benefits, including tax-exempt status for your organization and individual tax deductions.
Consider how much you value each of these benefits and if you would be able to reap similar benefits from donating to nonprofits alone.
How much money is needed to start a foundation?
Private foundations obtain funds directly from an individual, family, or corporation, instead of from a pool of individual donors. Therefore, to start a corporation, you need to have a sizable amount of funding available in your budget to set up the foundation’s endowment. Endowments are the funds your foundation uses to make grants and cover operating costs.
How to start a foundation
Ready to dive deeper? If you’ve determined that you have the resources, passion, and commitment to start your own, follow these steps for starting a foundation:
Define your mission and goals. Determine a clear purpose for your foundation and exactly who you want to help. Think about what you want to accomplish and what types of organizations you want to fund.
Understand legal requirements and regulations. Research the difference between trusts and nonprofit corporations and what’s needed to establish each. Then, decide which type of foundation best fits your needs and goals. Generally, trusts have less legal requirements, but nonprofit corporations offer more flexibility. You may decide to hire a dedicated legal team to advise you on complex legal and financial matters.
Identify potential trustees and staff. How personally involved do you want to be in your foundation’s day-to-day operations? Identify qualified staff members to help you run your foundation, along with the individuals who will serve as trustees.
Apply to get an Employer Identification Number (EIN), then apply to become a 501(c)(3) organization. You’ll need to complete both of these formal applications to obtain your foundation’s legal 501(c)(3) status before you begin making grants.
Set guidelines for using your endowment. Determine internal requirements for how your foundation will invest its endowment funds. For example, consider setting an annual minimum amount of funds that should stay in your endowment and a minimum amount that should be given out as grants.
Once you’ve set up your foundation legally, you can start getting familiar with the grantmaking process and considering how you want your foundation to appear to the public. Follow similar strategies for branding and marketing as other nonprofits use to ensure a positive, authentic reputation.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
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A nonprofit investment policy is the first step your organization should take before investing its reserve money. Creating a comprehensive investment plan will provide a clear roadmap and create continuity between your teams, ensuring that everyone’s on the same page about how to grow your funds.
If you’re creating a new investment policy or want to overhaul your existing document, we’ll make sure you understand the basic building blocks first!
What Is a Nonprofit Investment Policy?
A nonprofit investment policy is a document that outlines how an organization can invest the funds it raises responsibly. Think of it as a roadmap for your investment portfolio, guiding you toward smarter and more ethical financial management. It specifies the risks you’re willing to take, delegates responsibilities, and establishes investment objectives and guidelines.
An investment policy is not a set-it-and-forget-it type of document. Rather, you’ll need to regularly revisit it, making sure it continues to reflect your nonprofit’s priorities and needs year after year.
Why Do You Need a Nonprofit Investment Policy?
Just as there are several components to investing your reserve funds, there are also several reasons why you should invest them. For one, charitable giving is on the rise and increased an incredible 4.2% last year, according to fundraising research. Now more than ever, your nonprofit needs to curate strategies for making the most of those funds. That way, you’ll be in great shape to save what you need to take your mission to the next level.
More specifically, Infinite Giving’s guide to nonprofit investing outlines three primary reasons why nonprofits should invest their reserves and create a foolproof policy to guide their investments.
A solid nonprofit investment policy can help you:
Save for the long term. Your reserves may be actively losing value if they’re sitting in a simple money market, CD, or savings account. Having an investment account along with a strong policy can allow you to grow your rainy-day funds. In other words, you don’t have to spend the money right away and won’t have to worry about inflation impacting your revenue. Then, when you do need to tap into these funds, they’ll be right there waiting for you.
Build your nonprofit’s assets. Maybe you have a large project, like a capital campaign or a new program, that needs financial backing. Growing your reserves is a smart way to increase your spending power.
Secure large gifts and grants. Grants Plus’ guide to grant management explains that “funders want and need to ensure that the grants they award will actually be put to their intended uses, create sustainable changes, and follow their stipulated requirements.” In other words, grantmakers and major donors want to make sure your nonprofit is a responsible steward of money. A strong investment plan can indicate that your organization’s financial standing is in good health and that you have a solid strategy for achieving your mission. Plus, an investment account will make it easier for you to accept large non-cash donations, like stocks, endowments, and cryptocurrency.
As you can see, there are multiple reasons why nonprofits should create an investment policy and open an investment account. Sound financial management practices can ultimately empower you to pursue your mission more effectively over the long run.
The Core Components of Nonprofit Investment Policies
As we mentioned, creating an official policy is vital before you actually start investing your funds. Note that your specific approach to creating your investment policy can vary based on your timeline, risk tolerance, and current assets. However, there are several components that any nonprofit investment policy should have, including:
Delegated responsibilities. List the specific roles, responsibilities, and limitations of anyone responsible for overseeing and handling your investment portfolio. This might pertain to your executive director, board of directors, oversight committee, and other stakeholders.
Goals. Clearly define your investment portfolio’s objectives, including factors like potential risk allowed.
Guidelines for investing. Cover which types of investment vehicles are allowed, as well as which ones are prohibited. You’ll also want to include target percentages for each type.
Reserve expenditures. Add guidelines for how your nonprofit reserve funds can be spent, reasons why funds can be withdrawn, and how much can be withdrawn.
Donor restrictions. Include a statement expressing that the investment committee agrees to any stipulations donors give regarding how their donations can be invested.
Reporting standards. Define the metrics and frequency at which your board members will measure performance.
A lot goes into creating an investment policy for your nonprofit. Fitting these puzzle pieces together will give you a solid foundation for moving forward. Just make sure to treat your policy as a living document that you regularly revisit and update based on organizational changes.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Nonprofit Strategic Plan – Nonprofit Catalog
A nonprofit strategic plan gives your organization a roadmap for success. By laying out your goals and the steps to achieve them, you’ll be in great shape to advance your mission. Explore the basics of nonprofit strategic planning so your organization can amp up its fundraising strategy, reenergize board members, or meet any other existing needs.
What is a Nonprofit Strategic Plan?
A nonprofit strategic plan is a bold plan of action that aligns a nonprofit’s goals with its values to provide a dynamic performance map for future endeavors. With this blueprint, your organization will be able to prioritize its most important projects, navigate through any challenges, and keep all of your staff members on the same page.
Ample planning can set your nonprofit up for success in the long-run, allowing you to more effectively meet your objectives and elevate your community impact.
According to Aly Sterling Philanthropy, nonprofit strategic planning can benefit your nonprofit and its team in a variety of ways:
Building your nonprofit strategic plan isn’t a one-person job. Rather, you’ll want to collect a variety of perspectives and include your entire team in the process so everyone can work together towards mutual success. Let’s take a look at the specific steps towards developing an effective strategic plan.
Steps to Create a Nonprofit Strategic Plan
Creating your nonprofit strategic plan takes time, but will give new energy and life to your nonprofit’s staff and overall operations. Use this guide to develop a robust strategic plan that will take your nonprofit to new heights.
1. Assess
In the assess phase, you’ll reflect on what your organization is doing well and where there is room for improvement. For example, your nonprofit may have difficulty raising enough money to support its programs. The strategic area of focus that you’ll want to narrow in on is fundraising, and you might enhance your approach to fundraising by planning more engaging online campaigns.
This reflection process requires all hands on deck, so gather several different viewpoints from your nonprofit’s stakeholders. For example, you can survey your:
Remember, unfavorable opinions and critiques should be welcomed, as these will lead to unique ideas towards improvement. A nonprofit consultant can help collect unbiased views from each of your stakeholders so you can better understand different perspectives on your nonprofit’s operations and consolidate these into a plan of action.
2. Align
In the align phase, engage your leaders and members in a retreat to discuss their thoughts in an action-oriented forum. This phase helps you align your goals and values so you can prioritize the most important projects and tasks. By determining your high-priority action items, your team can effectively push your goals forward and waste less time on low-impact tasks.
Ensure that your priorities are relevant to your goals. For example, if marketing is an area of improvement for your nonprofit, you might want to prioritize optimizing your nonprofit’s website and social media presence. This ensures that your nonprofit is using its time and resources productively to reach its goals.
3. Act
The act phase is where your strategic plan becomes a fully formed roadmap for success. Following the SMART model (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely), you’ll need to develop high-level objectives that will allow you to complete your goals. For instance, if your nonprofit wants to enhance its approach to fundraising, you might create an objective to “increase the number of recurring gifts by 20%.”
To carry out your objectives, you’ll also need to outline initiatives. If you’re aiming to meet the objective for increasing recurring gifts, then sending targeted email appeals could be an important initiative. Creating a donor recognition wall could be another way to encourage donors to give again and again.
Create accountability by delegating responsibilities to different team members and laying out deadlines. This ensures that everyone understands their unique role in fulfilling your nonprofit’s strategic plan. Consider hosting weekly or monthly check-in’s so team members can discuss their progress and where they need additional support.
With a robust action plan, your nonprofit will be ready to approach its operations with new clarity and motivation. Work with a consultant to identify areas of improvement and create a tangible plan towards meeting your goals. Each year, take time to reflect on your nonprofit strategic plan and make adjustments as needed to enhance your approach.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Build Your Fundraising Strategy From the Ground Up: 10 Steps – Fundraising is an essential part of powering your nonprofit’s mission. Learn how to create a winning fundraising strategy guaranteed to drive engagement and revenue.
Top 20+ Consulting Firms for Nonprofit Organizations – A nonprofit consulting firm can give your organization the support it needs to develop a strong nonprofit strategic plan. Explore this list of the leading firms and the services they can provide you.
Nonprofit Branding Best Practices – Nonprofit Catalog
While it might feel easy to overlook marketing or to think that only for-profit organizations need to consider marketing strategies, you need to market your nonprofit successfully to both new and existing supporters in order to sustain a consistent donor base. To do so, your organization needs to have a cohesive brand that represents your mission well.
What is nonprofit branding?
Nonprofit branding includes all of the ways your organization communicates your mission and goals to the public. It’s a promise to donors, volunteers, and other types of supporters that you’ll work to further the cause they believe in. In other words, branding is a message to all your supporters that your nonprofit has a clear mission and will work toward that mission in all of your activities.
A cohesive brand ultimately instills trust in your audience, so it’s important to understand the essential elements of nonprofit branding. These essentials include:
Nonprofit branding best practices
Once you understand the essential elements of nonprofit branding, there are a few things to consider to ensure that your branding is consistent and benefits your nonprofit. In order to brand successfully:
For example, Best Buddies, a nonprofit that connects people with disabilities with people without disabilities, uses a playful logo, bright colors, and a bold font to portray their mission of friendship.
Note how their donation form pulls colors from the logo to maintain consistency across their website and communications.
Nonprofit branding agencies
Whether you’re new to nonprofit branding, looking to re-brand, or are just looking for some additional branding expertise, partnering with a nonprofit branding agency can make the process easier and ensure that you’re communicating your organization’s message in the best possible way.
Particularly if you are looking to work towards perfecting your nonprofit’s website, a branding agency or nonprofit design firm can be the perfect addition to your organization’s strategy, helping your organization to clearly communicate your mission within the digital space.
Branding is an essential aspect of a nonprofit’s ability to not only earn donations but also create a sense of unity and community for your supporters. Remember, your brand is a promise, so keep your promise to your supporters, always communicating your organization’s priorities and actions clearly.
Additional Resources
Corporate Philanthropy – Nonprofit Catalog
Corporate philanthropy empowers charitable individuals to strengthen their impact on the causes they care about. Through corporate giving programs, businesses step up to the plate to provide nonprofits with the funding they need to thrive.
If engage with external partners at your nonprofit, you understand that corporate giving plays a major part in achieving your objectives. From your fundraising team to your volunteer team, it impacts every aspect of your operations.
If you’re not already leveraging these opportunities, you’re missing out on funding, volunteerism, marketing, and so much more. It’s never too late to start, though! We’ll take a look at the fundamentals of corporate philanthropy, starting with a basic definition.
What is Corporate Philanthropy?
Corporate philanthropy refers to the activities and investments that a company voluntarily offers to promote the welfare of society. Corporate giving often includes:
By giving to charities, a company communicates its commitment to supporting the community that makes it profitable. To fulfill their social responsibility to support worthwhile causes, companies usually go beyond donating by offering employee programs like matching gifts and volunteer grants.
When developing these corporate giving programs, they usually outline participation guidelines, ensuring that participants and benefiting organizations align with the company’s values and objectives.
How Corporate Philanthropy Helps Nonprofits and Businesses
Engaging in corporate philanthropy has become standard for today’s businesses. These programs are wildly popular, because they benefit everyone involved. Here’s how these programs impact participating nonprofits and companies:
There’s really no downside to corporate giving! When chatting with a company’s leadership about forming a partnership, your nonprofit’s team can mention these advantages, positioning it as a mutually-beneficial opportunity.
Types of Corporate Philanthropy
Corporate philanthropy takes several forms, and nonprofits need to be aware of these different types to fully leverage their potential. Let’s take a look at five ways companies can partake in corporate giving. Bear in mind that these aren’t the only types of corporate philanthropy — just the most popular ones.
1. Matching Gifts
Companies that offer matching donations will match their employees’ gifts to nonprofits. They usually offer these at a dollar-for-dollar rate, enabling employees to double their charitable contributions. However, some companies will offer them at higher rates, tripling and sometimes quadrupling the initial donation. Some companies will even match the money their employees raise through peer-to-peer fundraising!
Businesses usually set some ground rules for participating. Most often, guidelines include:
There’s a lot to keep up with when funneling donors through the match process. That’s why most nonprofits enlist the help of a matching gift tool. This allows the donor to research their company’s corporate giving guidelines, determine their eligibility, and learn how to submit a request.
Plus, a tool with autosubmission functionality will remove a few steps from the process, enabling donors to submit their match requests immediately from the donation confirmation page.
2. Volunteerism
Volunteering brings out the best in people. Volunteers can interact directly with nonprofits’ beneficiaries and can put their skills to use to drive societal change. Corporate volunteerism encourages employees to spend their time with their favorite organizations. It can take a few different forms, such as:
Volunteer-related corporate giving initiatives provide nonprofits with extra sets of hands, while employees exercise skills they can use both in and out of the workplace!
3. In-Kind Donations
In-kind gifts are contributions of goods or services, rather than financial donations. Occasionally, a company will offer in-kind donations as a way to support charity.
For instance, you might allocate $5,000 toward paying for graphic design services in your budget. A design firm may swoop in and donate free graphic design services to help your nonprofit out. This can free up some (or all) of that $5,000, so you can reallocate it toward other operational expenses.
In-kind donations can also take the form of tangible goods like prizes for charity auctions. Or, maybe companies will provide you with event space or catering. There are several ways a company can donate without writing a check!
Some companies even go as far as using a mission-driven business model in which they provide software and services exclusively to nonprofits. In this case, they may donate or offer their products or services at reduced rates.
4. Automatic Payroll Deductions
Automatic payroll deductions are one of the easiest corporate philanthropy initiatives. Employees can opt into their employers’ program and automatically send a portion of each paycheck to a specific nonprofit. The process is really similar to contributing to a retirement account.
Note that companies will usually limit the types of nonprofits that employees can send donations to through this program. Also, know that federal law requires charitable donations to come out of an individual’s post-tax earnings, so employees can deduct donations from their taxes each year.
5. Sponsorships
A sponsorship is an ongoing relationship between a nonprofit and a company. Double the Donation’s corporate sponsorships guide breaks this type of corporate philanthropy into a few groups, including:
A key aspect of these relationships is that the nonprofit must acknowledge that the business has supported their programs or events. That way, the company receives positive publicity in exchange for their contributions.
How to Promote Corporate Philanthropy
Promoting corporate philanthropy to businesses and their employees can help your nonprofit secure meaningful support. Follow these tips to encourage widespread corporate giving:
Be prepared to provide corporate partners with data and reports on the impact of their contributions. Demonstrating transparency and accountability in how you use their donations can strengthen the trust between your organizations.
Additional Resources
Matching Gifts — Nonprofit Catalog
Companies everywhere are becoming increasingly aware of their responsibility to give back to their communities. To fulfill this obligation and support charitable causes, they develop corporate giving initiatives like matching gift programs.
Donation matching has the power to multiply the contributions you’re already receiving from donors. And when your donors are properly educated about the opportunity, they’ll be much more inclined to give.
If this is your first time hearing about matching gifts, don’t worry! It’s never too late to start leveraging corporate social responsibility (CSR) in your fundraising efforts. So that you can pinpoint opportunities within your donor database, we’ll cover the basics in this quick guide to corporate matching gifts.
What Are Matching Gifts?
Matching gifts are a type of corporate giving in which companies financially match the donations their employees give to nonprofits. Companies create guidelines to define which types of employees are eligible, which nonprofits are eligible, and how much someone must donate to qualify. This ensures that the program generates value for the company and participating nonprofits.
Companies most often match donations at a 1:1 ratio, meaning that they will donate $1 for every $1 an employee donates. However, some businesses will match at a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio, meaning some employees can effectively quadruple their donations to charity.
Benefits of Corporate Matching Gifts
At its core, matching gifts provide free money to nonprofits. Dive a bit deeper, and you’ll see that the benefits go beyond this surface-level advantage though.
From the nonprofit perspective, matching gifts can increase donor engagement and retention. Donors will feel like their contributions are making more of a difference in your cause without having to reach back into their wallets. Double the Donation’s nonprofit fundraising statistics page also claims that 1 in 3 donors would give larger gifts if they knew their employer would match their gift.
A driving force for companies to create this type of program is that it can increase employee satisfaction. By supporting their donations, they’re showing employees that they care about their values outside of the workplace. And as we touched on earlier, giving to charity can also create positive brand recognition for companies. These benefits are great to communicate to company leadership if your nonprofit’s team ever encourages a local business to create a program.
Common Guidelines for Matching Gift Programs
When developing a matching gift program, corporations often lay out some basic participation guidelines. This makes it easier for them to match the donations that align with their organization’s values and priorities. Here are some of the most common rules corporations define:
When you outsource the work to a matching gift tool, you’ll simplify the research process. You can easily extract these guidelines for individual companies, making it easier to identify match-eligible donors in your CRM.
The Matching Gift Process
Luckily, the process required to receive a matching gift is pretty straightforward. When you start folding corporate giving into your priorities, make sure you train your fundraising team. That way, they can guide donors through the process if questions arise.
Here’s what will need to happen to secure a matching gift:
Simplify this process even further with a tool that offers matching gift auto-submission. Backed by a platform that offers this level of innovation, donors can request corporate matches directly from their donation confirmation page, cutting out a few steps in the process.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
12 Sample Matching Gift Letter Templates [Free Resources] – It can be a lot of work encouraging donors to check their eligibility and submit their requests. Here are some templates to help you craft your follow-up outreach.
Matching Gift Auto-Submission + CSR Platforms | What to Know – Maximize your matching gift revenue by simplifying the process for donors via auto-submission. Learn more about how auto-submission works with this guide.
Fundraising Thermometer Basics – Nonprofit Catalog
Whether you’re a seasoned nonprofit professional or a newcomer launching your first fundraiser, you have to think of creative strategies to encourage active participation in your fundraising campaigns. One popular method of keeping donors engaged is adding gamification elements to your fundraiser. After all, who doesn’t love a little friendly competition?
We’ll break down the basics of an essential and effective gamification tool: fundraising thermometers. Learn how you can incorporate them into your donor communication strategy to help you increase participation and raise more funds.
What is a fundraising thermometer?
A fundraising thermometer is a graphic that nonprofits create to visualize fundraising progress and motivate supporters to donate to a campaign. These simple, colorful thermometer graphics show a fundraising campaign’s goal and how close your nonprofit is to reaching it.
While some online fundraising platforms are equipped with virtual thermometers that update automatically based on your progress, you can also easily create one on your own using a template.
How to use a fundraising thermometer
Fundraising thermometers are popular tools for encouraging donor engagement because they’re so easy to make, update, and share. Follow these simple steps to create your own:
You can use fundraising thermometers for both long term campaigns and one-time events. Use your thermometer to provide consistent progress updates for long term campaigns, or showcase a virtual thermometer with live updates at your event. Either way, spread excitement about your progress and celebrate milestones.
Fundraising thermometer best practices
The simplicity of fundraising thermometer graphics leaves plenty of room for creativity. As you experiment with design elements, however, follow these best practices to ensure you make the most of your thermometer’s potential:
After you try out your first fundraising thermometer, gather feedback from supporters to gauge how effective it was. Then, use that information to tailor the design for your next fundraiser and create an even more engaging experience for donors.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Data Collection — Nonprofit Catalog
Regardless of whether you’re actively tracking it, data is attached to every action your nonprofit takes. From serving your beneficiaries to communicating with donors, metrics indicate performance and help you make informed decisions about increasing your impact. Without a nonprofit data collection plan, you’re missing out on important information about your work.
As part of your plan, you need to know what data your nonprofit will collect and how you’ll use it to guide your strategies. Let’s cover the basics, so you can start tracking your organization’s performance.
What Is Nonprofit Data Collection?
Nonprofit data collection is the process of gathering data to use in decision-making and strategic planning. It involves pulling data from various sources, like donation forms, marketing platforms, and fundraising campaign management tools.
Tracking and managing various types of data allows nonprofits to quantify the impact of their work. Effective collection strategies allow these organizations to make educated decisions about improving their programs, strengthening their marketing, and amplifying their mission as a whole.
What Data Should Nonprofits Collect?
From fundraising and marketing to community outcomes, the metrics your nonprofit can monitor are endless. However, just because you can collect all this data doesn’t mean you should. Too many metrics will clutter your database, and you’ll have to muddle through the unnecessary data points to get to the ones that are actually helpful.
NPOInfo’s guide to nonprofit data collection breaks common metrics down into several different crucial categories. These categories will give you a solid foundation for shaping your nonprofit’s data collection process.
1. Constituent Information
Between donors, volunteers, and advocates, your nonprofit interacts with a lot of supporters. Supporter data lets you know exactly who these individuals are, so you can cater your outreach and work to appeal to them.
Start by collecting basic personal information like the following:
If any of this information is missing from your CRM, look into conducting a data append. Our data append guide explains that this process enables you to “pull data from external sources to correct incorrect data or supplement incomplete data.” Most often, data append service providers will append contact information, birthdays, and employment details.
2. Giving Data
From here, you can dig deeper into supporters’ giving tendencies, directly deepening your understanding of their motivations. You might track details like:
Tracking these details will enable you to reach out with the right appeals at the right times, increasing the likelihood that someone will continue giving to your cause.
3. Campaign Data
You spend time planning and executing your campaigns. Don’t let that go to waste by overlooking your performance metrics. Campaigns provide a prime opportunity to collect data, such as:
Collecting data for your nonprofit’s campaigns will help you revise your approach and make the most of future campaigns. Start with these key performance indicators and build out your list from there.
4. Financial Data
Most nonprofits operate on limited budgets. That means every dollar matters. To maximize revenue and cover operating expenses, you’ll need to collect financial data such as:
Tracking this data will allow you to monitor cash flow, remain financially stable, and plan future budgets.
5. Marketing Metrics
External communication is vital for acquiring new supporters and retaining existing ones. When sending solicitations and marketing your programs, make sure you have nonprofit data collection processes in place to pinpoint the most effective communication strategies.
Here are some of the most important marketing metrics your nonprofit should collect, broken down into different categories:
In a data-driven world, nonprofit data collection is a must for any organization that wants to thrive. Chances are, your nonprofit already collects most of the data we mentioned above. Now, it’s a matter of what you do with your data that matters!
Once you determine what metrics you’ll track, strengthen your nonprofit data collection and management strategies by streamlining forms to capture these details and practicing data hygiene to keep everything in order.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Donor Data Management: A Quick Guide for Nonprofits – Need inspiration for leveraging the data your nonprofit has collected? Explore this guide to learn how to put your data to use.
Nonprofit Fundraising Metrics: 32 KPIs To Measure Success – There are countless metrics your nonprofit can collect. Check out this extensive list to learn more about what data you should collect.
Data Enrichment for Nonprofits — Nonprofit Catalog
Your nonprofit’s database is a gold mine of useful information. When you create rich constituent profiles, you get to know who your supporters are and can create more valuable experiences for them.
Data enrichment for nonprofits enhances the data collection process and makes the information you’ve gathered organically even more valuable. That way, you can connect with prospects on a deeper level and drive greater outcomes for your cause.
By filling in gaps within your CRM, you’ll be on your way to stronger supporter relationships in no time. In this quick guide, we’ll cover the essentials of nonprofit data enrichment, so you can get started at your organization!
What Is Data Enrichment for Nonprofits?
Nonprofit data enrichment is the process of combining first-party information from internal sources (such as donation forms) with disparate data from external, third-party sources. Also known as data enhancement or appending, data enrichment allows you to add supplemental information like contact details, demographics, and financial data to your CRM.
The goal of nonprofit data enrichment is to build rich supporter profiles by filling in missing information. That way, you can gain a holistic understanding of who your supporters are and how you can best connect with them.
Often, the term “data enrichment” is often confused with “data cleansing.” While related, these processes serve different purposes. While data enrichment involves building upon existing data, data cleansing removes inaccurate or outdated information.
Types of Nonprofit Data Enrichment
When practicing data enrichment, you’ll need to decide what information will be most valuable for cultivating deeper relationships. Some of the most helpful types of data you can pull for your supporters include:
While you can pull other details, these are often the easiest, most valuable types of details nonprofits pull for their supporters.
Benefits of Nonprofit Data Enrichment
As a nonprofit marketer, you understand the power of organically-collected data. Nonprofit data enrichment can take the data you’ve already collected and make it even more valuable by filling in any missing pieces. Regularly doing so will empower you to:
What it all boils down to is that nonprofit data enrichment will provide your team with the resources it needs to understand supporters and drive its mission forward.
Quick Tips for Using Data Enrichment for Nonprofits
Data enrichment is not a one-and-done process. Constituent data is always changing, even if you’ve implemented careful data collection processes. You need a plan for consistently collecting and enriching your data. Otherwise, your nonprofit might miss out on offering valuable offers and experiences.
Here are some ways you can get started improving your nonprofit data enrichment processes:
Effective data enrichment for nonprofits is more than investing in new data. You’ll need a solid strategy for leveraging your data. Otherwise, your enhanced data might go to waste. These tips will give you a solid start!
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
Donor Data Management: A Quick Guide for Nonprofits – Data enhancement for nonprofits is just one piece of the data management puzzle. Learn more about managing donor data with this guide.
What Is an Address Append? Ultimate Guide for Nonprofits – Postal appending is a specific type of data enrichment for nonprofits. Learn how conducting an address append can enhance your direct mail outreach.
18 Best Nonprofit Graphic Design Examples
With the rise of the digital age, people are consuming information faster than ever. In order to capture their attention before they click away or scroll to the next post, you need exciting graphics.
Graphic design is an essential part of marketing your nonprofit organization to the world. A powerful graphic allows you to deliver information to your audience in a way that’s visually appealing, informative, and impactful. As a result, you’ll be able to maximize your nonprofit’s reach and improve your brand visibility.
For some nonprofits, graphic design can feel daunting, especially if you don’t know where to start. If you’ve found yourself looking for inspiration, you’re in the right place. By examining compelling graphic design examples, you can see what’s possible for your own website, social media, and more!
In this article, we’ll show off 15 of the best examples of nonprofit graphic design by format, along with tips and tricks to creating your own. Specifically, we’ll go over:
By seeing how other nonprofits have successfully used graphic design, you’ll be in great shape to plan your own designs and excite your audience.
Ready to jump into the world of nonprofit graphic design? Let’s get started.
Graphic Design Basics: Building Your Brand
Your nonprofit organization might be serving the same need as another organization. So, how can you stand out from the crowd and maximize donations?
A great graphic design will help build your brand recognition. By using a consistent theme across designs (colors, illustrations, messaging, and more!), your supporters will be able to immediately recognize your nonprofit and better connect with its mission. Better yet, more people will become familiar with your organization and want to contribute.
There are many types of graphic design you can use to improve your nonprofit marketing strategy. Consider adding the following to your graphic design portfolio:
As you look through examples in this article, consider which graphic design types would be most beneficial and relevant to your nonprofit. Remember to keep in mind your audience. Your graphic design should be inspiring and impactful for the group you’re targeting.
Nonprofit Logo Examples: Designing a Logo that Pops
1. Humane Society of the United States
Why We Love This Logo
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is an animal welfare organization that has three focus areas: end the cruelest practices toward all animals, care for animals in crisis, and build a stronger animal protection movement.
Their mission to support animals in the U.S. is clear in the design. The logo features an illustration of America made from a variety of animals, ranging from pets like dogs and cats to wild animals like whales. The image is engaging to look at and immediately lets the viewer know that this logo belongs to an animal-centered group in the U.S., even if they aren’t familiar with the HSUS.
The color blue is another key feature that makes this logo great. Blue conveys positive qualities like trustworthiness, reliability, and professionalism to viewers. Blue is also in the American flag, so this color helps emphasize the organization’s mission to serve all of the U.S.
Top 3 Lessons From This Logo
2. Feeding America
Why We Love This Logo
Feeding America is a charitable organization that seeks to provide equitable access to nutritious food across the United States.
The words are stacked on top of each other so each letter is perfectly in line, creating a simple yet effective design. Feeding America’s mission is well-reflected in the letter “I’s” which align to create an ear of wheat. The wheat illustration adds character to the logo without making the words difficult to read or distracting the viewer.
This logo also uses color to its advantage. Feeding America’s color palette strategically ties back into their mission to tackle hunger. The orange and green colors feel earthy and can easily be linked to food production.
Typeface is another feature that plays an important role in this logo’s success. Feeding America’s logo was created with the font Gotham Bold, which is a sans-serif typeface. Sans-serif feels modern, clean, and friendly, making it a great choice for Feeding America’s branding.
Top 3 Lessons From This Logo
3. Rethink Mental Illness
Why We Love This Logo
Rethink Mental Illness aims to improve the quality of life for people with mental illness. This U.K. based organization offers support groups, mental health training, and more to improve mental healthcare.
For their 50th anniversary, Rethink Mental Illness created this special anniversary logo to commemorate their longevity. Developing an anniversary logo is a great way to demonstrate your organization’s longstanding commitment to serving its mission while adding authority to its brand. People want to feel confident that their donation is being put to good use, so highlighting your organization’s achievements can help attract more support.
Rethink Mental Illness seamlessly wraps the number 50 around its traditional logo, creating a feeling of unity. The number is large, clear, and immediately lets viewers know that this organization is celebrating a historic milestone.
Top 3 Lessons From This Logo
Nonprofit eCard Design Examples
Charity eCards are a fantastic way to bolster your nonprofit’s brand identity, raise money, spread cause awareness, and foster deeper relationships with stakeholders. Let’s take a look at some of our favorite examples of nonprofits putting this type of nonprofit graphic design to use.
1. Peace Winds America
Why We Love These eCard Designs
Peace Winds is an international NGO that responds to natural disasters and man-made crises throughout the world. As part of their initiative to raise awareness of refugees’ situations, they launch a joint Father’s Day and World Refugee Day campaign.
Fundraising Letters’ donation eCards guide does a great job of explaining why this nonprofit eCard design works so well:
If you’re wanting to spread cause awareness, eCards like these are a great way to do so — especially if there’s a special cause awareness day, week, or month associated with your mission. Model your nonprofit graphic designs after these, and you’re sure to wind up with powerful greeting cards that supporters will love.
Top 3 Lessons From This eCard Campaign
2. Youth For Understanding
Why We Love These eCard Designs
Online cards are such a fantastic way to recognize donors, volunteers, and anyone else who makes your mission possible. Youth For Understanding (YFU) launched a thank-you eCard campaign as part of their initiative to reignite program participants’ relationships with former mentors, staff members, host families, and anyone else who made their experience memorable.
We love these designs because they incorporate the nonprofit’s colors and logo while also promoting a positive message. The organization offered an array of greeting card options, including everything from generic thank-you designs to more specific ones. Program participants could pick their favorites and send a customized, heartfelt message alongside them.
Top 3 Lessons From This eCard Campaign
3. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
Why We Love These eCard Designs
Looking to spread the word about your mission and celebrate the holidays? Follow Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s lead by designing holiday eCards.
For this campaign, they designed a huge collection of Valentine’s Day eCards that featured different animals, aligning with their mission to save wildlife and educate the public about preserving their habitats.
Users could then select their favorites to send to loved ones to celebrate the special day and encourage them to visit the zoo. Smart nonprofit marketing tactics like these can take your outreach to the next level.
Top 3 Lessons From This eCard Campaign
Nonprofit Website Design Examples: Highlighting Your Mission
1. The End Fund
Why We Love This Website Design
The End Fund is a charitable organization that seeks to end the most common neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). This group is the only one of its kind with its critical mission to provide NTD treatments to over 1.7 billion people.
This focus on improving the lives of people affected by NTDs is evident throughout their web design. On the homepage, The End Fund breaks down their organization’s purpose with educational and engaging sections. Each section flows smoothly into the next and utilizes the same color scheme of red, blue, and black with a consistent font.
For example, “The Problem” section uses illustrations and bold lettering to highlight the number of people suffering from parasitic and bacterial infectious diseases. This design makes the statistics digestible for a wide audience. It also helps to illuminate the magnitude of the problem so people feel more passionate about The End Fund’s cause.
Another great feature of this homepage is the interactive map that identifies where The End Fund operates and its impact when you hover over the red countries. This visualization grabs the viewers’ attention and makes navigating The End Fund’s website a positive experience.
Top 3 Lessons From This Website
2. MAHUBE-OTWA Community Action Partnership, Inc.
Why We Love This Website Design
MAHUBE-OTWA tackles poverty by empowering children, adults, and seniors to be self-sufficient.
Its homepage features a slideshow of engaging images that change every few seconds. These pictures include prominent captions that explain MAHUBE-OTWA’s services as well as an easy-to-click “Learn More” button that takes visitors to a more detailed page. This makes navigating the website and finding information a breeze.
Another great feature on this website is the interactive calendar located under the Events tab, which is displayed prominently on the homepage. This calendar makes it simple for site visitors to learn about in-person or virtual events so they can get more involved. The calendar also fits well with the rest of the website because of its purple and white color scheme.
Top 3 Lessons From This Website
3. Live Out Loud
Why We Love This Website Design
Live Out Loud is a charitable organization that seeks to uplift LGBTQ+ youth through offering resources, role models, and opportunities.
The branding across the website is consistent with the butterfly logo, which is featured prominently on the homepage. Here, visitors can see a slideshow of different teens in front of the butterfly logo as if these wings are their own. This ties back into Live Out Loud’s Mission to help kids become leaders in their communities.
With a straightforward menu bar at the top of every page, users can easily find the information they’re looking for. Live Out Loud simplifies and brings attention to the online donation process through a prominent “Donate” button highlighted in blue in all caps.
Once visitors click on the “Donate” button, a form is automatically generated with very few prompts, making donating simple and convenient. This helps donors feel more compelled to give again.
Top 3 Lessons From This Website
Nonprofit Infographic Examples: Developing Creative Resources
1. American Heart Association
Why We Love This Infographic
The American Heart Association (AHA) seeks to promote cardiovascular health and prevent heart disease and stroke. One key way they achieve their mission is through providing public health education.
This focus on health education is evident in AHA’s infographic design. It features the clear title “How to Be More Active” in all caps at the top, which grabs the audience’s attention and defines what the infographic is about.
The layout, split between “Move More” and “Tips for Success,” is easy to understand and follow. AHA makes great use of illustrations to emphasize points and makes reading this graphic fun. The images, like the target by the “Set Goals” heading or the children playing, are relevant and help the infographic feel more approachable.
Top 3 Lessons From This Infographic
2. World Wildlife Fund
Why We Love This Infographic
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is a conservation organization that seeks to protect the environment and the people and animals that inhabit it.
This infographic explores the important role sea turtles play in the Mesoamerican Reef. While this could be a difficult topic to explain, WWF’s infographic makes complex information digestible through short information bullets, sections covering different subheadings, and an engaging life-cycle diagram.
The life-cycle diagram features fascinating graphics of sea turtles and brief descriptions accompanying them. Clear arrows make it easy for the reader to follow the material.
The color scheme – made up primarily of blue, orange, and pink – helps the information pop. Blue, which is the predominant color, relates closely to the ocean and adds to the visual appeal.
Top 3 Lessons From This Infographic
3. Amnesty International
Why We Love This Infographic
Amnesty International seeks to promote universal human rights and challenge injustices around the world.
This organization strategically makes their infographic more captivating through a graphic of a pregnant woman, which is relevant to its subject. Inside of the woman, statistics are listed out in large, white text, which helps it stand out from the green color. The body font is simple and easy to read, inviting the audience to read the text associated with the numbers.
Amnesty International has clear branding at the bottom of the infographic. This helps to build brand visibility and let viewers know more about the organization so they can get involved.
Top 3 Lessons From This Infographic
Nonprofit Brochure Examples: Telling Your Organization’s Story
1. Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders is a humanitarian organization that provides medical care for people in conflict.
This digital brochure – 7 pages in length – gives a comprehensive overview of the organization including how they carry out their mission and use donor funds. On the front page, viewers can clearly see the organization’s name printed in the center and at the bottom as part of their logo.
The first page also includes a large, clear image of the organization at work, showing a child receiving medical treatment from a volunteer. This image highlights the impact of Doctors Without Borders and creates an emotional response.
The branding is consistent throughout the brochure, which uses the red, black, and white color scheme and the same header and body font. This strategy boosts brand recognition and maintains readers’ attention.
Another great feature of this brochure is the strong call to action at the end. Doctors Without Borders encourages readers to “be part of a global movement” and offers multiple ways (with links!) that they can get involved.
Top 3 Lessons From This Brochure
2. Atlanta Humane Society
The Atlanta Humane Society (AHS) is a charitable organization that provides shelter and veterinary care for homeless animals.
Their digital brochure can be flipped through like a book, enhancing the reading experience and inviting readers to engage with the material. AHS has a section dedicated to explaining the organization’s animal-driven mission and its impact in the Atlanta community. This helps supporters feel confident that they are giving back to a worthy cause. Plus, it can help boost local support because of the organization’s proud ties to Georgia’s capital city.
Another highlight is the use of graphics to represent how AHS has used donations to power change. The pie charts illuminate how AHS shifted from focusing primarily on shelter services to community outreach with COVID-19. These visualizations (and fun illustrations of pets!) help readers better connect with the material.
Top 3 Lessons From This Brochure
3. Boys and Girls Club of York County
The Boys and Girls Club of York County focuses their mission on empowering children to realize their full potential. This is done through a variety of programs for children, including summer camp.
This brochure works well for in-print distribution because of its tri-fold layout. Rather than focusing on the organization as a whole, this example targets the summer camp experience to get more children to enroll (and spread their mission far and wide to increase donations)! This allows the organization to provide more focused details such as the summer locations and fees.
The front panel establishes a clear purpose so people know that this brochure is all about summer camp. Colorful photos of kids having fun appeals to parents and will increase the chances of families reading through the brochure to learn more.
Another great quality is the clear headers, distinguished by bold font and colors, to bring the reader’s attention to the different sections. Even though the brochure has three different panels, there is a consistent style with the blue and green background colors and white text boxes.
Top 3 Lessons From This Brochure
Nonprofit Video Examples: Expanding Your Reach
1. Smile Train
Why We Love This Video
Smile Train is a charitable organization that treats children with cleft lips and palates.
This organization has designed their video to be both informative and emotional. The video begins with a lighthearted animated scene of a child throwing food around and giggling. This is coupled with an important statistic about how children eat several meals a day. However, the next part of the video tugs at the viewers’ heartstrings by explaining that this is a struggle for children with clefts.
This video evokes an emotional response in the viewer and makes the audience feel more connected to their cause. Its simplicity draws attention to the problem Smile Train is trying to solve and why it’s an important issue to address.
The video is only 17 seconds long, but it gets to the point quickly and effectively. Viewers immediately know why Smile Train exists and their interest is piqued to learn more.
Top 3 Lessons From This Video
2. American Cancer Society
Why We Love This Video
The American Cancer Society (ACS) seeks to end cancer through groundbreaking research, public education, and policy changes.
This video shows real people affected by cancer and how ACS positively impacted their lives. Ranging from children to adults, the people in this video demonstrate the scope of this problem and how it can impact anyone at any time. Their stories are raw and vulnerable, with one woman even saying that she has a high chance of getting cancer again in the near future.
Between clips of survivors, the video includes slides with short phrases to drive important points home, like “You can make a difference,” and “We need your help” in all caps.
Along with cancer survivors, the Chief Medical Officer of the ACS is featured in the video. The video ends with his powerful appeal to the audience for donations to save lives like the people shown in the video.
Top 3 Lessons From This Video
3. Education and Employers
Why We Love This Video
Education and Employers aims to inspire students by connecting them with volunteers working in a variety of different professions.
This video follows a real-life case study of students to track gender stereotypes in the workforce – but there’s a twist! Three women ask the students to draw a surgeon, fighter pilot, and a firefighter, and the video follows the children’s drawing process. The majority of the children opt to draw a man for each of the professions, and are surprised when the women reveal that they work in these professions.
The twist in the video is a surprise to both the children and the audience. Education and Employers accurately captures the problem of gender stereotypes in this video and why there is a need to help children, especially young girls, realize their potential.
This video also interlays statistics about gender stereotypes and other key points with the clips of the classroom experiment. Black text on the white screen, as well as the letters formatted in all caps, grabs viewers’ attention. The typeface is easy to read and minimal, which increases the chances of the audience reading and internalizing the message.
Top 3 Lessons From This Video
Wrapping Up
Now that you’ve seen the best nonprofit graphic designs, you can dive into bringing your own logos, websites, infographics, brochures, and videos to life!
Including some (or all) of these graphic design types will help get the word out about your awesome nonprofit (meaning more supporters and more donations)! Consider which types of graphic design would be most effective to bring attention to your mission and programs.
And remember, you can always keep learning! Continue to gather inspiration from nonprofits doing great things with graphic design. Check out their social media and websites so you can create the most engaging designs possible!
Interested to learn more about nonprofit graphic design? Explore these additional resources:
Starting a Foundation – Nonprofit Catalog
Starting a private foundation provides a lasting opportunity for philanthropists to donate consistently to a nonprofit and make an impact on causes they’re passionate about. If you’re considering starting a foundation or want to learn more about them, we’ll cover the basics and discuss all the important elements you’ll need to consider before diving into the process.
What is a foundation?
Instead of collecting donations from individual donors to launch their own programs and initiatives, private foundations act as the donors by giving grants to other nonprofit organizations to fund their operations. They can also provide scholarships to individuals in certain circumstances.
Foundations are private 501(c)(3) organizations, meaning they operate independently from the government but still retain a nonprofit tax-exempt status. To qualify as a private foundation, organizations must have a defined purpose, such as:
Foundations are often started by a family or small group of people with a shared charitable interest, but they can also be started by a corporation. For example, Google provides grants for nonprofits for free advertising space to help them get their message out to wider audiences.
How do you decide to start a foundation?
Before making the decision to start your own foundation, do extensive research on the process and legal requirements. Evaluate both the benefits and costs of starting a foundation, and take stock of your existing resources. Consider the following information while deciding if you should start a foundation:
What are the benefits of starting a private foundation?
Individuals and companies start foundations for a variety of reasons, but all foundations offer the unique ability to:
Consider how much you value each of these benefits and if you would be able to reap similar benefits from donating to nonprofits alone.
How much money is needed to start a foundation?
Private foundations obtain funds directly from an individual, family, or corporation, instead of from a pool of individual donors. Therefore, to start a corporation, you need to have a sizable amount of funding available in your budget to set up the foundation’s endowment. Endowments are the funds your foundation uses to make grants and cover operating costs.
How to start a foundation
Ready to dive deeper? If you’ve determined that you have the resources, passion, and commitment to start your own, follow these steps for starting a foundation:
Once you’ve set up your foundation legally, you can start getting familiar with the grantmaking process and considering how you want your foundation to appear to the public. Follow similar strategies for branding and marketing as other nonprofits use to ensure a positive, authentic reputation.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Investment Policy – Nonprofit Catalog
A nonprofit investment policy is the first step your organization should take before investing its reserve money. Creating a comprehensive investment plan will provide a clear roadmap and create continuity between your teams, ensuring that everyone’s on the same page about how to grow your funds.
If you’re creating a new investment policy or want to overhaul your existing document, we’ll make sure you understand the basic building blocks first!
What Is a Nonprofit Investment Policy?
A nonprofit investment policy is a document that outlines how an organization can invest the funds it raises responsibly. Think of it as a roadmap for your investment portfolio, guiding you toward smarter and more ethical financial management. It specifies the risks you’re willing to take, delegates responsibilities, and establishes investment objectives and guidelines.
An investment policy is not a set-it-and-forget-it type of document. Rather, you’ll need to regularly revisit it, making sure it continues to reflect your nonprofit’s priorities and needs year after year.
Why Do You Need a Nonprofit Investment Policy?
Just as there are several components to investing your reserve funds, there are also several reasons why you should invest them. For one, charitable giving is on the rise and increased an incredible 4.2% last year, according to fundraising research. Now more than ever, your nonprofit needs to curate strategies for making the most of those funds. That way, you’ll be in great shape to save what you need to take your mission to the next level.
More specifically, Infinite Giving’s guide to nonprofit investing outlines three primary reasons why nonprofits should invest their reserves and create a foolproof policy to guide their investments.
A solid nonprofit investment policy can help you:
As you can see, there are multiple reasons why nonprofits should create an investment policy and open an investment account. Sound financial management practices can ultimately empower you to pursue your mission more effectively over the long run.
The Core Components of Nonprofit Investment Policies
As we mentioned, creating an official policy is vital before you actually start investing your funds. Note that your specific approach to creating your investment policy can vary based on your timeline, risk tolerance, and current assets. However, there are several components that any nonprofit investment policy should have, including:
A lot goes into creating an investment policy for your nonprofit. Fitting these puzzle pieces together will give you a solid foundation for moving forward. Just make sure to treat your policy as a living document that you regularly revisit and update based on organizational changes.
Additional Resources
Nonprofit Catalog – Read up on more nonprofit essentials by exploring our Nonprofit Catalog.
How to Accept Stock Donations: The Ultimate Nonprofit Guide – Thinking of accepting stock donations to strengthen your sources of revenue? Check out this guide to learn how to accept stock donations and why it’s worthwhile.
Nonprofit Fundraising Training: FAQs and 8 Top Resources – Improve your financial literacy and strengthen your fundraising strategies with these training tips and suggestions!